Movie notes: ‘9’ vs. ‘Nine’

9 peeks out from his hiding place in a scene from “9,” which opens Sept. 9  two months before the movie musical “Nine.”

Considering how much money they spend on promotion, it seems that Hollywood studios would do anything to avoid confusing moviegoers.

After scanning the fall movie landscape, considered me confused. There are movies titled “9” and “Nine” opening two months apart? Really?

And neither is likely to change its name, since the promo machines are already in motion. I saw the trailer for “9” last week before “Julie & Julia.”

Fortunately, they’re nothing alike. “9,” which opens 9-9-09 (the most obvious and gimmicky opening date since the remake of “The Omen” opened on 6-6-06), is an animated yarn starring Elijah Wood as the voice of this ragdoll character with these weird eyes (imagine the Geico money stack in a coal mine) who wanders though a human-less world run by machines. He finds there are others like him hiding from the machines, who are out to destroy them.

Opening the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, “Nine” is the musical version of Fellini’s 1963 introspective masterpiece “8 1/2” than began its life on Broadway and earned a bunch of Tonys. Daniel Day-Lewis stars (and sports an Italian accent) as conflicted director Guido Contini, who’s trying to balance the professional and the personal. Considering all the women in his life (Penelope Cruz, Marion Cotillard, Nicole Kidman, Kate Hudson, Fergie and even Sophia Loren), who wouldn’t be conflicted?

The director is Rob Marshall, who handled “Chicago,” so it’ll probably be pretty good. The trailer shows Day-Lewis cavorting with his hot cast while a sirenish singer exhorts him to “be Italian.” And, like “Chicago,” there are lots of wild, sexy set pieces. Talk about he had it coming.

It probably helps that by the time “Nine” rolls around the day before Turkey Day, “9” may well have faded from everyone’s memory banks.

And it could have been worse. What if they’d saved “District 9” until October?

(The Weinstein Co.)

Shades of Roy Scheider in “All That Jazz”: Daniel Day-Lewis (center, in the dark) is surrounded by beautiful women in “Nine,” which opens Nov. 25.